Recovery of a Data CD-RW

[tkcomer]

Ok, so I’ve messed up. I was going to make a data CD-RW when I stuck it in the wrong drive. Started INCD and told it to format the CD. When I saw the light go on for the burner, I realized instantly what I’d done and I hit the button on the burner, but of course it didn’t stop. I then turned the power off on the ‘puter. The format didn’t last 5 to 7 seconds. And as we all know, the ‘puter doesn’t even see the CD in there now. I’ve tried several freebie and trial versions of CD recovery software, all but two doesn’t even see a CD in the drive. One saw the CD and even had the correct name for the CD, but could find no files. Had a message about a root directory was bad. That was CDRoller Another, inDisk Recovery, shows a folder labeled “Lost UDF Files” and another folder labeled “Lost Files”. To see what’s in the folders, you have to pay to get the full version. I have no problem with that, it’s just that the program will not show me what I’m going to recover. There are several Word documents and a 3 Excel files that were on the CD. I really only need the Excel files and 2 Word documents. If the rest are lost, so be it. Like I said, I have no problem paying for a program (Within reason) if it will recover the files I want. I just hate paying for a program and it recovers the files I really don’t need. Can anyone recommend a program that will actually let me know, if anything, can be recovered? Since so many programs saw nothing, it makes me wonder if the one program actually sees anything and is just trying to get my money. Any help would be appreciated.

[kdown]

What would happen if you restored your computer to an earlier date ?

[tkcomer]

This is a damaged data CD-RW that I’m trying to pull info off of. It was the one that was in the burner when I accidentally put the new CD that I was going to format in the DVD player.

[kcredden]

Ug, wish I could help, TK. I don't fool with CDRWs at all, due to their costs, plus I have almost no end of problems with them. It's almost cheaper to buy cheap CDRs at Biglots or some other place that sell them cheap, and toss them when they're full, or make 2 or 3 copies.

Chances are you CAN recover the data, since it was just formatted for a few seconds. Sounds like the MBR was erased, meaning if the computer can't find it, it basically throws up its hands and says "I can't fool with it." Computers are too bloody literal :)

Here's a set of links to demos, and freeware that may help

http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/cd_recovery.asp
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobusterdownload.php
http://www.dtidata.com/cd_dvd_recovery.htm
http://www.infinadyne.com/download.shtml
http://www.downloadjunction.com/product/software/120558/index.html

an interesting review page: http://www.ibo-business.com/ibo-cd-recovery-report.htm

Tell us what you come up with, if these work, ok? Good luck!

This is a damaged data CD-RW that I’m trying to pull info off of. It was the one that was in the burner when I accidentally put the new CD that I was going to format in the DVD player.

[tkcomer]

Thanks for the links KC. There was only one of them I hadn’t tried. I’m coming to the conclusion that 5 to 7 seconds were all it took to wreck the CD. I got my hopes up when the very first program I used (Recommended in PC World) claimed it found something. I use the RW disks for data as I change things in the Excel and Word documents.

[frogg]

I used a program called GetDataBack for NTFS - to recover a damaged hard drive. The demo version was able to show me what would be recovered, which gave me confidence to order the full program. I would think it would recover a CD as well.

The hard drive boot area was damaged, but the program was able to work past that.

I wish you success.

[RHP Studios]

this might be a little too technical, but it will work irregardless of whether or not the cdrom can see the disk. I can do it for you if its too technical.

First, you need some sort of linux live cdrom (suggest knoppix - http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html or for something smaller, try DSL - http://www.****smalllinux.org/ )

Second, you need to understand how those live cds will see your hard drives and cdroms. You have 2 ide busses if you are using ide drives. Windows see's them as C, D, E, F but linux sees them as hda, hdb, hdc, hdd. So, for example, if your cd rom drive in windows is known as drive C, in linux it will be hda. If windows sees the drive as D, it will be hdb in Linux, E would be hdc, F would be hdd.

Third, you need two cdroms for this to make it easier and the commands I show you simpler. Place the bootable cdrom into whatever drive windows shows as the first cdrom drive. Place the cdrom to be recovered in the second drive. You will also need enough free hard drive space to store the image we extract....or maybe even a 1GB usb thumbdrive.

Fourth, boot to the linux live cdrom. It will boot you into some sort of a live cd environment (a gui or some sort, the type of gui wont matter) where you can now run commands. I am going to show the commands you will need to run to make an image of the dead cdrom (this also works for hard drives by the way), and then show you how you can extract the data from the image. Not all data will be available, but a good chance that a lot of it will be since you only formatted for a few seconds. From this point on it is all commands:

First we need to press ctrl + alt + F1 key at the same time. This will place you in a shell (sort of like dos)

Now we need to mount your hard drive so that we have some place to store the image we extract. This is done using the mount command (I don't know what version of windows you are using, so I will show one command for fat32 partition and a second command for ntfs partition)

This command creates a mount point for the hard drive:
mkdir /mnt/hda

This command will mount the hard drive if it uses a fat32 partition:
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda

This command will mount the hard drive if it uses ntfs partition:
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda

Now we will make an exact image of the cdrom, including all blank space (remember those linux drive names explained above?? Replace x in the hdx with whatever your cdrom to recover is):
dd if=/dev/hdx of=/mnt/hda/my_image.iso

Next, we will create a mount point to mount our created image:
mkdir /mnt/image

Now we will mount the cdrom iso image we created from the dead cdrom drive and extract whatever data exists:
mount -t iso9660 /mnt/hda/my_image.iso /mnt/image -o loop

Next, we cd into the mounted cdrom image:
cd /mnt/image

Now we create a folder to hold all the files on our windows drive:
mkdir /mnt/hda/files

Now we copy all files and folders that exist from the mounted cdrom to the files folder we just created:
cp -R * /mnt/hda/files/

Thats how it is done.....step by step, but very technical. If you would like someone else to recover the files for you....you can call me (I wont charge you if I dont recover files)

[tkcomer]

Umm. Whew. That’s way over my head. I’m a one click type of guy. Where is your store located? If I get some time, I’ll give you a call. But except for the two programs, most said I had an empty disk. But then again, I never saw the light come on when the programs did a check. Not even a flicker from the DVD-RW.

[Chuck]

I have an electro magnet down at the shop if you still need that done. Just bring the drive and yourself on by.